Kino Pionier 1909 celebrates its 100th anniversary

Szczecin’s Pionier 1909 cinema, the oldest continuously-operating cinema in the world, celebrates its 100th birthday. A glance back at the history of this cinema, which is today renowned for its international quality programming.

This September saw Szcecin's Kino Pionier 1909 celebrating one hundred years in the business of showing films in public performances.

The Helios Welt-Kino-Theater, as the cinema was called at the time, opened its doors on 26 September 1909 with three films – Der Kampf um den Glauben, Pick und Pock, and Die Smaragdküste der Bretagne – when a cinema ticket cost only two Groschen.

Two world wars did not stop performances going ahead, and operations were only halted when the cinema underwent renovation. Indeed, the cinema was immortalised in the poem Little Cinema in 1947 by the poet Konstanty Ildefons Galczynski with the description of “the best little cinema where one can forget everything.”

The current owner Jerzy Miskiewicz took over the cinema in 1999 when it was in quite a rundown state and invested time and money in 2002 to bring this former jewel back to its former glory by installing the latest technology and comfort.

In its 2005 edition, the Guinness Book of Records issued a certificate confirming that Kino Pionier is the oldest cinema in the world.

Kino Pionier now has two screens, the larger one with 82 seats and a smaller studio called Kiniarnia - a play on the Polish words “kino” and “kawarnia” (for cafe) - which allows the audience to sit at tables and to view films in a cafe-style atmosphere.

In addition to its programme of international arthouse programming, Kino Pionier 1909 has also been one of the venues for the European Documentary Film Festival “dokumentART” held each October in Szcecin and neighbouring Neubrandenburg. Martin Blaney